Impulse: a sudden strong and unreflective urge or desire to act. A feeling mother Melissa McGrain felt when she saw the Hartland Little League Soccer Club was looking for team members. She signed her only daughter up for soccer thinking it would just be an entry way to get into the world of sports, but three year old Samantha Anne McGrain had other plans in store. 

McGrain says she doesn’t remember much about the start of her soccer life besides pink shin guards and shiny participation trophies, but she remembers kicking around soccer balls since she can think back. Oftentimes you look back on your sports career and think of first. Things that cross your mind typically are your first game, trophy, goal, or win. These are probably what made you fall in love with the sport. But for McGrain she took things a little bit harder. “I scored goals here and there but nothing ever felt special to me. Until the day I scored my first hattrick. After that day I knew I would play soccer until my body couldn’t” McGrain said. Her and soccer have been in a love hate relationship since she started but she deals with soccer like she does her relationships, she always goes back. “I don’t have enough fingers to count the amount of times I’ve contemplated quitting,” McGrain told us as she giggled. 

McGrain started taking soccer a bit more seriously when she began playing club soccer for the jags. “I got more excited for games because I knew I started getting good.” she said. When she entered 8th grade she got a new coach, Scott Emert. It’s naive to think every sports coach can shape, influence and motivate your life but not out of the question. “I’ve been coaching Sam for five years now.  Her commitment to the team and improving her game was something I enjoyed as a coach.  Sam is constantly searching on how to become a better player and person and that’s a personality trait I look for in every athlete I coach.  She will be sorely missed but I know she will find success in whatever she does in the future!” McGrain comfortably calls coach Scott a second dad and that is one of the things she loves most about soccer, the family that’s created. 

McGrains three younger brothers followed in her footsteps in the soccer world and hope to play up to and through the college level, just like their sister. She looked at 10 schools to play soccer at and around February McGrain decided she will continue her soccer career playing for Schoolcraft College in the fall. “It’s close to home and that’s what I wanted. When I met the coach of the school craft I could envision myself playing under him” McGrain said. And although she doesn’t know exactly what she will do with her life, it’s safe to say she will still be kicking around a soccer ball for the next 4 years.